First Semester 2020/2021

Fish anatomy is the study of the form or morphology of fishes

CAUTION: Different with term fish physiology, which is the study of

how the component parts of fish function together in the living fish
EXTERNAL MORPHOLOGY
INTERNAL ANATOMY
In practice, fish anatomy and fish physiology complement each
other

Anatomy dealing with the structure of a fish, its organs or

component parts and how they are put together,

While Physiology dealing with how those components function

together in living fish.
 Common body forms:-

Fusiform, Compressiform, Depressiform,

Globiform, Filiform, Anguilliform

In spite of many variations, the groun plan of body

organization is bilateral symmetry

Strong cephalization

Tail is important integral part of main body

cyprinid

Climbing perch

shark

sturgeon

All the above fishes have different types of scale

Main types of fish scale and fish species
External
features
mainly
fins can
clearly
be seen
Not all fin characteristics can be seen on
one fish species but instead such fins
diversity can be seen by looking at
different ORDERS or FAMILIES
Fin scutes normally exist in Family Carangidae (mackerel group)
Shark has different arrangement of arrangement of fins and fin shaped

Body appendages of Chondrichthyes

Ray or skate has
its own body
features
arrangement too
This body morphology is for eel
Fish with enlarged fins or with
elongated free rays in fins: a-flying
gurnard Dactyloptena sp.; b-
Samaridae; c-Paradise threadfin
Polynemus paradiseus; d-P.
quinquarius; e-roosterfosh
Nematistius pectioralis; f-spiderfish
Bathypterois sp.; g-Trachipteridae;
h-high-finned dragonfish
Bathophilus flemingi.
 Barbel is a slender, whisker-like sensory organ near the mouth. Fish that have barbels include
the catfish, the carp, the goatfish, the hagfish, the sturgeon, the zebrafish, the black
dragonfish and some species of shark such as the sawshark. Barbels house the taste buds of
such fish and are used to search for food in murky water.

Common carp
Arowana

Goatfish
Catfish
Nostril
fish have eyes similar to humans, but they also
have protective film over their eyes so that they can
see more clearly underwater. Their eyes have rod
and cone cells on their retinas, so we know that they
can see color as well as in shades of grey, light and
dark.

Fish eyes contain many of the same components

as human eyes, but they are structured and
used differently. Fish have a cornea or outer
covering, a lens for “taking a picture,” an iris for
adjusting light, a retina containing light-sensitive
cells and an optic nerve for translating the picture to
the brain
Fish Fin Shapes
 Respiratory System

The gills push the oxygen-poor water out through openings in the sides of the pharynx.
Sharks and lampreys, possess multiple gill openings.

Bony fish have a single gill opening on each side. This opening is hidden beneath a
protective bony cover called the operculum. The operculum is a series of bones found in
bony fish and chimaeras that serves as a facial support structure and a protective
covering for the gills

Gill slits are individual openings to gills, i.e., multiple gill arches, which lack a single outer
cover. Such gills are characteristic of cartilaginous fish such as sharks, and rays, as well as
deep-branching vertebrates such as lampreys

Most sharks and rays have five pairs of gill slits

Spiracles are openings on the surface of some fishes e.g. ray, which usually lead to
respiratory systems.
Gills position for
bony fish

Gills position and gill

slits for shark
Fish gills are organs that allow fish to
breathe underwater. Most fish
exchange gases like oxygen and
carbon dioxide using gills that are
protected under gill covers
(operculum) on both sides of the
pharynx (throat)

Gills are tissues that are like short Gill filaments

threads, protein structures called gill
filaments

The gills are composed of comb-like

filaments, the gill lamellae. Each gill is
supported by a cartilaginous or bony
gill arch

Primary lamellae
 Swim bladder

Many teleost fishes have a large gas-filled bladder (often called a swim bladder) in their
body cavity, which eliminates the weight of the fish in water. Neutrally buoyant fishes can
hover in the water and swim with much less energy. However, there is only one depth at
which a fish has neutral buoyancy, so it is important for the fish to be able to regulate the
amount of gas in the swim bladder to maintain neutral buoyancy at different depths
Lateral line system is a system of tactile sense organs, unique to aquatic vertebrates from cyclostome
fishes (lampreys and hagfish) to amphibians, that serves to detect movements and pressure changes in the
surrounding water. It is made up of a series of mechanoreceptors called neuromasts (lateral line organs)
arranged in an interconnected network along the head and body
The Reproduction of Fish
All fish have internal sexual organs, and some have evolved external organs as well. Female fish have
ovaries that produce eggs while male fish have testes that produce sperm. The next step is fertilization,
and different species use different methods to make sure fertilization takes place consistently. Since fish
reproduce sexually, if eggs are not fertilized, they don't produce any young.

The female scatters the eggs her ovaries have produced into the water, and the male ejects his sperm
into the water in the same general area. The key to the success of this method is scattering lots of eggs
and sperm so the chances of a sperm finding an egg in the water and fertilizing it are high.

For fish using internal fertilization of the eggs, the fertilized eggs may remain inside the mother fish and
hatch internally. In this case, the young hatchlings are either released by the mother at the time of
hatching or they remain inside the mother for an additional period during which they are fed from a
placenta in the mother's body.

A final method of ensuring the survival of the young is for the parents to take the fertilized eggs into
their mouths until the eggs hatch. The young can then continue to live inside the parents' mouths until
they are big enough to become independent.
In fish, the genital
papilla is a small,
fleshy tube behind the
anus present in some
fishes, from which the
sperm or eggs are
released

The sex of a fish often

can be determined by
the shape of its papilla
Female and male genital apertures of a tilapia
Macroscopic stages of gonad development in
Hirundichthys affinis: (a) ovary in the
maturation process, (b) mature ovary, (c) spent
ovary, (d) resting ovary, (e) testis in the early
maturation process, (f) testis in the late
maturation process, (g) mature testis, (h) spent.
(Immature individuals were not captured
during this study).
Bony fish, commonly reproduce by broadcast spawning. This is an external method of reproduction
where the female releases many unfertilised eggs into the water. At the same time, a male or many
males release a lot of sperm into the water which fertilises some of these eggs.
Male cartilaginous fish have claspers formed from the posterior portion of their pelvic fin which
serve as is used to channel semen into the female's cloaca during mating. The act of mating in
some fish including sharks usually includes one of the claspers raised to allow water into the
siphon through a specific orifice. The clasper is then inserted into the cloaca
Fish Skeletal
System

The skeleton of the fish is made of either cartilage (cartilaginous fishes) or bone
(bony fishes). The fins are made up of bony fin rays and, except for the caudal fin,
have no direct connection with the spine. They are supported only by the muscles
Fish caudal skeleton
The head or skull includes the skull roof (a set of bones covering the brain, eyes
and nostrils), the snout (from the eye to the forward-most point of the upper jaw),
the operculum or gill cover (absent in sharks and jawless fish), and the cheek,
which extends from the eye to the preopercle
 Myomere are the blocks of skeletal muscle tissue found commonly in chordates. They
are commonly zig-zag, "W" or "V"-shaped muscle fibres. The myomeres are separated
from adjacent myomere by connective tissues and most easily seen in larval fishes

Myomeres usually make up the great bulk of the lateral musculature, and provide
almost all the propulsive force

Each segment, or sheet, of muscles is called a myomere or myotome and is separated

from its neighbor by a sheet of connective tissue. The muscles of the upper half of the
body are called 'epaxial' and those of the lower half are called 'hypaxial'.

Most fish muscle tissue is white but, depending on the species, many fish will have a certain amount of dark
tissue of a brown or reddish colour. The dark muscle is located just under the skin along the side of
the body. The proportion of dark to light muscle varies with the activity of the fish

The amount of protein in fish muscle is usually somewhere between 15 and 20 per cent. Two
essential amino acids called lysine and methionine are generally found in high concentrations in
fish proteins
Dark muscle is always present in fatty fish. These
fatty acids have various bioactive functions, such as
anti-cancer activity, recovery from heart failure,
attenuation of cerebrovascular disease, and anti-
arteriosclerosis action (according to research). Dark
muscle is also a high source of iron which is an
essential mineral.
Digestive tract of Bony Fish
Fish Digesive Tract
The structural components of a fish's digestive system include the mouth, teeth and gill rakers,
esophagus, stomach, pylorus, pyloric caeca, pancreatic tissue, liver, gall bladder, intestine and anus.
Not all components are present in all fish

A fish's digestive system is adapted to their food habits. In predatory (carnivorous) fishes, the mouth
is usually large for engulfing prey whole, or in large chunks, and teeth are present on the jaws
(e.g. maxillary and dentary) and tongue for grasping live prey. Gill rakers are short in carnivorous fish
and pharyngeal teeth are short and pointed for moving prey down the throat

In omnivorous and planktivorous fishes, the mouth is smaller and is usually devoid of teeth except for
pharyngeal teeth that may be blunt and flat for grinding or sharp and long for shredding. Gill rakers in
these fish are typically fine to prevent the escape across the gills of small food particles

The esophagus, which is lubricated by mucus, leads to the stomach. In carnivorous fish, the stomach
is muscular and elastic for holding large prey items, while in omnivorous and planktivorous fishes the
stomach, if present at all, is small because a more or less constant stream of small food particles can
flow directly into the intestine
Common types of teeth
Pharyngeal teeth are teeth in the pharyngeal arch of the throat of cyprinids,
suckers, and a number of other fish species otherwise lacking teeth. Many
popular aquarium fish such as goldfish and loaches have these structures.
Alimentary tract of carnivorous fish
Mouth position according to feeding habit
Changes of feeding
habit can be seen
during early
development stage
of larval and
postlarval stages
Extended belly in some fish (E.g. catfish Asterophysus batrachus )